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Monolith Productions revealed it was making a Wonder Woman game back in 2021. Now, publisher Warner Bros. Games has announced that the project has been canned, and the studio best known for the Middle-Earth: Shadow of War games is being shut down as well as part of larger cuts. The shakeup comes after 2024’s Suicide Squad bombed and platform fighter MultiVersus failed to make a comeback.
The news, first reported by Bloomberg, was confirmed by Warner Bros. Games in a statement provided to Kotaku over email:
We have had to make some very difficult decisions to structure our development studios and investments around building the best games possible with our key franchises -– Harry Potter, Mortal Kombat, DC and Game of Thrones. After careful consideration, we are closing three of our development studios – Monolith Productions, Player First Games and Warner Bros. Games San Diego. This is a strategic change in direction and not a reflection of these teams or the talent that consists within them.
The development of Monolith’s Wonder Woman videogame will not move forward. Our hope was to give players and fans the highest quality experience possible for the iconic character, and unfortunately this is no longer possible within our strategic priorities. This is another tough decision, as we recognize Monolith’s storied history of delivering epic fan experiences through amazing games. We greatly admire the passion of the three teams and thank every employee for their contributions. As difficult as today is, we remain focused on and excited about getting back to producing high-quality games for our passionate fans and developed by our world class studios and getting our Games business back to profitability and growth in 2025 and beyond.
In addition to Monolith, the publisher is also closing Player First Games, the team behind MultiVersus, and WB San Diego, which had been working on an unannounced “AAA, free-to-play, cross-platform game.” The team behind Multiversus, which came out in beta back in 2022 before relaunching again last year to less fanfare and more player complaints, recently announced the current season 5 update will be it’s last.
The news comes after recent reporting from Bloomberg that plans at Warner Bros. Games were in flux after the flop of last year’s Suicide Squad cost the company $200 million and other multiplayer games, like Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions, struggled to find an audience. The report laid some of the blame for publisher’s gaming woes on mismanagement from above and lack of direction.
Today’s closures were communicated to staff in an email from Warner Bros. Discovery head of global streaming and games JB Perrette, parts of which were published by Polygon. The executive said the team needs to “regain our credibility and swagger at producing great games” and blamed current financial difficulties on “the product-market fit and quality of too many of our new releases has really missed the mark.”
“We need to and will do better for our fans first and foremost, and also because regaining that credibility is critical to us securing even more investment in Games in the years to come,” Perrette reportedly wrote. “Getting our swagger back happens one high quality game release at a time, and our financial credibility gets rebuilt one fiscal quarter at a time—delivering what we said we would deliver, and no big negative surprises.”
Monolith’s Wonder Woman game was rebooted last year after struggles to incorporate the studio’s patented nemesis system for evolving relationships with NPCs, according to Bloomberg. WB Games Montreal, meanwhile, is reportedly pitching a possible Game of Thrones game, while Rocksteady Studios pivots back to single-player projects with a pitch for a new Batman game after its Suicide Squad debacle. Long-time Warner Bros. Games head David Haddad recently announced he was leaving the company.
Update: 2/25/2025 3:11 p.m. ET: Added more context and new reporting by Polygon.
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